HIGHLIGHTS

Rumour mills had said Pant was angry after being ignored for the senior Indian team

Pant has clarified to say he had never criticised the selectors

Delhi Daredevils superstar Rishabh Pant has hit out at rumour mongers and asked them to let him focus on his cricket.

Pant, 20, was retained by Delhi Daredevils this season and has since been in the form of his life. The young wicketkeeper batsman is currently the Orange Cap holder with 582 runs from 12 matches. He has struck a hundred and four fifties so far.

In fact, Pant broke Gautam Gambhir's record for most runs by a Daredevils batsman in an IPL season. Gambhir had scored 534 runs in the inaugural edition in in 2008.

Given Pant's form, it was a bit of a surprise to see that he had not been selected for the Indian limited-overs teams for the two T20I matches in Ireland and the ODIs and T20Is in England. He, was however, named in the India A team.

The Indian squad was announced on May 8 and Pant has since blasted an unbeaten 128 (the highest individual IPL score by an Indian) and 61. But the rumour mill went into overdrive and a parody account falsely quoted Pant as saying: "I was angry with the selectors for not selecting me in Indian Senior Team against Afghanistan, England or Ireland. All my anger came out tonight in form of those shots. Hope they saw my innings & realized I deserve a place in Indian Team.

Just to clarify some rumours going around about my statement about not getting selected to play for india I never said anything like that it so just giving out my clarification .So please stop spreading rumours and let me concentrate on my cricket

Pant is the youngest batsman to breach the 1000-run mark in IPL history.

In January 2017, Pant was named in the Indian squad for the three-match T20I series against England at home. He made his debut in Bangalore. He was also part of thr one-off T20I against West Indies in July last year where he scored 38.

He also played two matches in the Nidahas Trophy, scoring 23 against Sri Lanka and 7 against Bangladesh.

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